


Hold Me When It's Over

by Raufnir



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gladnis, Ignis takes on too much as usual, M/M, Panic Attack, Pre-Relationship, Touch Aversion, Young Ignis, bottling stuff up never helps, young gladio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 04:18:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10654764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raufnir/pseuds/Raufnir
Summary: Ignis is now seventeen, and everyone just assumes he's doing ok with all the pressure that comes along with nurturing a young prince, standing in for him while he's in school, and concentrating so hard on studies etc... Until he has a panic attack at the end of a meeting. Luckily, Gladio's there for him.Kinda related to my story called Skin Deep. Same storyline anyway.





	Hold Me When It's Over

Ignis did not have panic attacks. He didn’t. He…

Breath came short and sharp, and his chest hurt, and his throat burned, and the world spun.

He was seventeen. He did not have panic attacks.

“Hey,” a soft voice murmured beside him. A face slid into view, blurred by the fact that Ignis’ eyes were watering and his glasses had come off at some point. Amber eyes burned quietly. “It’s me, it’s Gladio. I’m here.”

“Don’t touch me,” he gasped. “Please, don’t…”

“I'm not. I won’t,” he reassured him. “I won’t. But maybe you’d like to walk with me a little way?”

Ignis shook his head. He couldn’t move.

“Ok,” he smiled. “It’s ok. I’m here. I won’t let anything bad happen. Just breathe, ok, just keep breathing, but a bit more slowly.”

His acne had calmed down to leave a few deep scars on the hollows of his cheeks, and his ash-brown hair was more than dappled with grey now, but he was still the reserved, bookish boy he’d always been. To see this much emotion surging in him was making Gladio nervous too.

“Iggy, come on, breathe,” Gladio insisted gently. “I’m here, and you’re doing really well. It’s alright. I know you’re feeling a lot right now, but you’re safe. I promise you’re safe.” He paused a moment, and then said, “Iggy, can you do something for me?”

Ignis tried to swallow but choked on it instead. He tried to nod. He wanted to do something for Gladio. He wanted to help him, he wanted to do anything he could for him. But he didn’t know he had anything left inside himself to give.

“Can you raise your arms for me?”

He frowned. And then obeyed.

“Good,” Gladio said. “Now lower them.”

He did it.

Gladio brought his palms up flat to face him, and said, “Ok, now move your fist towards my palms like we do in training. You don’t have to make contact, but just give me a jab-jab-cross, ok?”

The fifteenth time he did this, Ignis found himself smiling as he realised what Gladio was doing. He was trying to distract him from the terror that was filling his lungs like spray foam. And to his surprise, it felt like it might be working.

“That’s it Iggy,” Gladio grinned. “Proud of you. Keep going.”

Ignis complied. His breathing wasn’t getting any easier though.

“Ok, Iggy, listen, I’d like you to take a deep breath in for four seconds while I count…” Gladio counted as Ignis tried to rein his spasming diaphragm back under control, “Ok, now let it out for four.” He tried, and made it to two before he let it all go and gasped another few stuttering gulps. “Iggy, we’re gonna do it again, ok, you ready?” He chuckled softly and said, “Ok, good. Breathing helps, but it only helps when it's done properly. And I know how you feel about doing things properly, right?”

Halfway through an inhale, Ignis laughed. He felt the tension snap, and the whole process of breathing suddenly became a hell of a lot easier.

He blinked, realising where he was. He was in the royal meeting chamber. His eyes went wide as they roamed the empty room. “Oh gods, did… did anyone…?” he couldn’t even bring himself to finish.

“It’s ok. It’s just you and me here,” Gladio rumbled softly. He was standing beside him, close, but not too close. Close enough to see the scars though.

Ignis swallowed and realised he was drenched in sweat. He drew a handkerchief out of a pocket with shaking fingers and dabbed at his brow. “I apologise.” He turned his face away and squinted, looking for his glasses.

“Don’t,” Gladio said. “Don’t apologise.”

After a moment Ignis turned his eyes on him again and said in a tremulous voice, “I… I don’t remember what set me off. I… Did it happen when anyone was here?”

“No,” Gladio reassured him. He held out his glasses for him. “Here’s your specs. Drautos was messing with you at the end of the meeting. Said some stupid shit after the king and Noct left, and he put his hands on your shoulders. He kinda…” he looked sheepishly at him. “He kinda shoved you around a bit.”

Ignis closed his eyes. “I… I should have been alright. I’m usually alright. I don’t understand.” Gladio chewed his lip and Ignis looked more closely at him with his glasses now on. “Are _you_ alright?”

Gladio huffed a laugh, his golden eyes suddenly going glassy. “Yeah,” he rasped.

“Gladio?”

His lip trembled and he spoke with marked difficulty. “I… You scared me there Iggy. You couldn’t breathe, you looked like you were gonna pass out or pass on. I… I just want to hold you, but I know you hate it. I…” he blinked. “I feel so helpless.”

“Hold me.”

“What?”

“Hold me. It’s ok.”

Gladio stared like Ignis had ordered him to strip.

Ignis nodded. “Really. With you, it’s different. Why do you think I train with you exclusively?”

“But you… you hate being touched…”

Ignis shook his head. “I do, but… not by you… There’s something different about you, Gladio.”

Gladio gave him a watery smile, and stepped closer. “You sure I can do this?” he asked one more time.

Ignis nodded again. “I… I think I need you to do it. I need you to help me.”

Gladio knew something about panic attacks. Soldiers with PTSD were encouraged to learn to face whatever had set them off, in a controlled way, of course, and having Iggy of all people reach out to Gladio for help with what set off his panics, struck Gladio very deeply. He raised his great arms and gingerly put them around Ignis’ slim shoulders.

The young advisor stiffened instinctively, and Gladio backed off, but Ignis latched his arms around him and drew him closer again. Carefully, Gladio laid his arms back over his body and just held him. He didn’t squeeze, and he didn’t speak. He just held him. “Hey, Iggy,” he said after a bit. “How you doing?”

Ignis didn’t say anything immediately, but after a while, he nodded. “Don’t let go.”

Tears soaked into Gladio’s shirt. “Hey, it’s ok.”

“Don’t let go of me.”

“I won’t.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've never had a panic attack myself, but I was with my mum when she had one, and she suddenly snapped back to the present when I made her laugh unexpectedly. It didn't stop the attack like magic, but it brought her to a place where we were able to calm her, so I used that here. Also, Iggy's touch aversion is something I feel comes along with his difficulty in processing emotions (his own and those of others), as well as his tendency to bottle things up inside. He trusts Gladio, and watch this space for developments maybe? *shrugs* Thanks for stopping by!


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